


You'd Fool Me Again

by katayla



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-02
Updated: 2010-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-13 11:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barney and Robin are alone at  MacLarens on Christmas Eve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You'd Fool Me Again

She and Barney were the only ones in their booth. Which wasn't unusual, but it made Robin think of other times. When she and Barney would stay at the bar long after everyone else departed. Oddly, it wasn't their time together she remembered, so much as before that. When she'd sit at the bar and egg him on in his ridiculous self-challenges. Or when they'd sprawl in their booth and make fun of the others.

Tonight, though, they were quiet. Barney had made a few half-hearted comments about other women in the bar, but then fell silent. It wasn't like there were many people around anyway.

Christmas Eve.

Whatever Barney said about lonely women and holidays, it was a time for families. Ted was back in Cleveland with his. Marshall and Lily were staying at her parents. She could've gone back to hers, maybe even should've, but she couldn't face it this year. Not when her job still sucked and her cousins were popping out babies.

She wasn't sure why Barney was skipping his family's celebration. She wondered if he'd tell her if she asked. He used to tell her things, sometimes, but that was before . . . before, well, everything.

"Well, you're just a barrel of fun, aren't you?" Barney asked.

"Look who's talking."

And Barney just shrugged.

Yeah, she definitely wasn't the only one feeling the holidays blues.

"I miss Canada," she said, just to give him the easy joke opportunity.

"Canada sucks."

She leaned her head against the back of her seat. Barney took another sip of his drink.

"Christmas sucks," she said.

"Yeah."

She hated when he got like this. Barney bad moods were so much worse than the average person's bad mood. And she felt like they'd just finally gotten their balance back. She'd almost, _almost_ forgotten they'd ever been anything more than friends. But seeing him like this made her realize how very well she still knew him.

"Barney . . . "

But she didn't know how to continue. She wasn't sure she was ready to cross back over that line, for them to become more than just two random people in a group of friends.

He was looking at her, with that intense Barney-look. And she knew it was up to her, that he would follow her lead. But the problem, as ever with her and men, was she didn't know what she wanted. It would be easier to leave things as they were and she was tired of trying so hard for things that didn't work out. It was so tempting to accept that things were never going to change. On her job. With Barney.

But even though she wasn't sure what she wanted, she was pretty sure she knew she _didn't_ want things to remain the way they were in her life. She wasn't sure where Barney fit in with that, but she knew she wanted him to be a part of it.

"Do you want to go Christmas caroling?"

"What?" He stared at her.

She shrugged. "Let's go find strangers and sing to them."

He grinned. "I like the way you think, Scherbatsky."

And he jumped out of his chair, happy again. Even his suit suddenly seemed a little crisper, his tie a little straighter. And, for just one second, she knew _exactly_ how she wanted things to turn out for them.


End file.
